DOCSLIB.ORG

Beyond #Metoo

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Beyond #Metoo 41734 nyu_94-5 Sheet No. 47 Side B 10/28/2019 11:39:54 \\jciprod01\productn\N\NYU\94-5\NYU503.txt unknown Seq: 1 28-OCT-19 11:04 BEYOND #METOO DEBORAH TUERKHEIMER* The #MeToo movement has ushered in a new kind of sexual misconduct accusa- tion—accusation leveled through informal channels of communication. A func- tional analysis shows that unofficial reporting can advance important ends. But the rise of informal accusation should be of special concern to legal scholars and law- yers, who generally proceed from certain assumptions regarding the primacy of formal systems of accountability. These basic assumptions need revision if, by aiming to satisfy goals that our laws and legal institutions fail to achieve, informal reporting channels are serving as substitutes for the officially sanctioned mecha- nisms of accountability that monopolize scholarly attention. Unofficial reporting pathways are imperfect legal workarounds; their prevalence means that the law of sexual misconduct has been consigned to a relative state of quiescence. Over time, survivors, long disserved by the criminal law, by campus disciplinary processes, and by workplace complaint structures, have mostly turned away from the systems that have forsaken them. A needed redesign of official complaint channels should be informed by the benefits of informal reporting, along with a commitment to awakening law. INTRODUCTION ................................................. 1147 R I. FORMAL CHANNELS FOR (NOT) REPORTING SEXUAL MISCONDUCT ........................................... 1151 R A. Criminal Justice System ............................. 1153 R B. College Campus..................................... 1159 R C. Workplace .......................................... 1163 R II. THE WORKINGS OF UNOFFICIAL ACCUSATION .......... 1167 R A. Unofficial Reporting Channels: A Taxonomy ....... 1168 R 1. Traditional Whisper Network ................... 1168 R 41734 nyu_94-5 Sheet No. 47 Side B 10/28/2019 11:39:54 2. Double Secret Whisper Network ................ 1169 R 3. Shadow Court of Public Opinion ............... 1171 R 4. New Court of Public Opinion ................... 1172 R B. A Functional Analysis of Unofficial Reporting ...... 1174 R 1. Victim Empowerment ........................... 1174 R 2. Group Member Protection ...................... 1177 R 3. Epistemic Justice ................................ 1179 R 4. Norm Evolution ................................ 1181 R * Copyright © 2019 by Deborah Tuerkheimer, Class of 1940 Research Professor, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. I am grateful to Ian Ayres, Danielle Citron Keats, Sarah Lawsky, Jennifer Long, Melissa Murray, Janice Nadler, and Jide Nzelibe for their insightful comments on earlier drafts. Tom Gaylord, Faculty Services and Scholarly Communications Librarian, contributed outstanding research assistance, and the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law Faculty Research Program furnished gen- erous support. 1146 41734 nyu_94-5 Sheet No. 48 Side A 10/28/2019 11:39:54 \\jciprod01\productn\N\NYU\94-5\NYU503.txt unknown Seq: 2 28-OCT-19 11:04 November 2019] BEYOND #METOO 1147 5. Institutional Change ............................. 1184 R 6. Offender Accountability ......................... 1185 R C. The Future of Unofficial Reporting: A First Assessment .......................................... 1188 R III. TOWARD A NEXT GENERATION OF FORMAL REPORTING CHANNELS ................................. 1191 R A. Criminal Justice System ............................. 1192 R B. College Campus..................................... 1197 R C. Workplace .......................................... 1203 R CONCLUSION ................................................... 1208 R INTRODUCTION In early October 2017, accusations of sexual assault and harass- ment against Harvey Weinstein, first published by the New York Times and The New Yorker,1 catalyzed the #MeToo movement.2 As allegations against Weinstein multiplied in the coming weeks and months,3 the media intensified its focus on sexual misconduct4 by other powerful men.5 Soon the coverage of misconduct ranging from 1 See Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey, Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades, N.Y. TIMES (Oct. 5, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/ harvey-weinstein-harassment-allegations.html; Ronan Farrow, From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories, NEW YORKER (Oct. 10, 2017), https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual- assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-stories. 2 The “Me Too” campaign originated in 2007, when activist Tarana Burke began a nonprofit to assist victims of sexual harassment and assault. Sandra E. Garcia, The Woman Who Created #MeToo Long Before Hashtags, N.Y. TIMES (Oct. 20, 2017), https:// www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/us/me-too-movement-tarana-burke.html. For a reflection on 41734 nyu_94-5 Sheet No. 48 Side A 10/28/2019 11:39:54 when a protest campaign like #MeToo becomes a movement, see Beverly Gage, When Does a Moment Turn into a ‘Movement’?, N.Y. TIMES MAG. (May 15, 2018), https:// www.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/magazine/when-does-a-moment-turn-into-a-movement.html. 3 See Sara M. Moniuszko & Cara Kelly, Harvey Weinstein Scandal: A Complete List of the 87 Accusers, USA TODAY (Oct. 27, 2017), https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/ 2017/10/27/weinstein-scandal-complete-list-accusers/804663001. 4 “Sexual misconduct” encompasses sexual assault, sexual harassment, and non- actionable sexual abuse. See Kathryn Casteel & Andrea Jones-Rooy, We Need a Better Way to Talk About ‘Sexual Misconduct,’ FIVETHIRTYEIGHT (Apr. 17, 2018), https:// fivethirtyeight.com/features/we-need-a-better-way-to-talk-about-sexual-misconduct (explaining the importance of distinguishing between various types of sexual misconduct). Although the existence of different subordinate categories complicates use of the umbrella term, the “sexual misconduct” rubric provides a way to identify connections between the distinct behaviors that fall under its mantle. See infra Section II.B.4 (describing how understandings of what counts as sexual misconduct can evolve). 5 See Swetha Kannan & Priya Krishnakumar, A Powerful Person Has Been Accused of Misconduct at a Rate of Nearly Once Every 20 Hours Since Weinstein, L.A. TIMES (Dec. 29, 2017), https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-sexual-harassment-fallout. Over the course of several years preceding the Weinstein story, clusters of high-profile sexual misconduct accusations surfaced against Bill Cosby, Roger Ailes, and Donald Trump, among others, likely seeding the ground for #MeToo. For one pre-Weinstein perspective, see Lani 41734 nyu_94-5 Sheet No. 48 Side B 10/28/2019 11:39:54 \\jciprod01\productn\N\NYU\94-5\NYU503.txt unknown Seq: 3 28-OCT-19 11:04 1148 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 94:1146 boorish to criminal expanded to disparate industries and institutions, including publishing, fashion, music, sports, entertainment, architec- ture, advertising, comedy, philanthropy, hospitality, retail, farm, fac- tory, academia, technology, media, church, and politics.6 By the close Seelinger, Trump, Cosby, and Why Being a Woman in 2017 Feels Harder than Ever, BUSTLE (June 17, 2017), https://www.bustle.com/p/trump-cosby-why-being-a-woman-in- 2017-feels-harder-than-ever-65066. 6 See, e.g., Patricia Cohen & Tiffany Hsu, Children’s Book Industry Has Its #MeToo Moment, N.Y. TIMES (Feb. 15, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/15/business/ childrens-publishing-sexual-harassment.html; Emilia Petrarca, Fashion’s #MeToo Movement Is Loudest on Instagram, THE CUT (Apr. 5, 2018), https://www.thecut.com/2018/ 04/fashions-me-too-movement-instagram-sexual-harassment.html; Marlow Stern, ‘Russell Simmons Is Just the Beginning’: Music Industry Braces for #MeToo Impact, DAILY BEAST (Dec. 15, 2017), https://www.thedailybeast.com/russell-simmons-is-just-the-beginning- music-industry-braces-for-metoo-impact; Juliet Macur, The ‘Me Too’ Movement Inevitably Spills into Sports, N.Y. TIMES (Oct. 19, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/19/sports/ olympics/mckayla-maroney-me-too.html; Notable Entertainment Figures Accused of Sexual Misconduct in Wake of Harvey Weinstein, HOLLYWOOD REP. (Nov. 30, 2017), https:// www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/hollywood-media-men-accused-of-sexual-misconduct- and-harassment-post-weinstein-1057193; Stassa Edwards, Women in Architecture Have Their Own Shitty Men List, JEZEBEL (Mar. 16, 2018), https://jezebel.com/women-in- architecture-have-their-own-shitty-men-list-1823844222; Amelia Harnish, Advertising’s #MeToo Movement Picks Up Speed, REFINERY29 (Mar. 13, 2018), https:// www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/03/193440/times-up-advertising-female-advertising- executives-sexual-harassment; David Sims, Louis C.K. and Abuse of Power in the Comedy World, ATLANTIC (Nov. 9, 2017), https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/ 11/louis-ck-sexual-misconduct-allegations/545489; #MeToo Hits the Nonprofit World, CHRON. PHILANTHROPY (Apr. 5, 2018), https://www.philanthropy.com/specialreport/ metoo-hits-the-nonprofit-worl/167; Maura Judkis & Emily Heil, Rape in the Storage Room. Groping at the Bar. Why Is the Restaurant Industry so Terrible for Women?, WASH. POST 41734 nyu_94-5 Sheet No. 48 Side B 10/28/2019 11:39:54 (Nov. 17, 2017), https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/rape-in-the-storage-room- groping-at-the-bar-why-is-the-restaurant-industry-so-terrible-for-women/2017/11/17/ 54a1d0f2-c993-11e7-b0cf-7689a9f2d84e_story.html;
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Excavating the Sex Discrimination Roots of Campus Sexual Assault
    Pittsburgh University School of Law Scholarship@PITT LAW Articles Faculty Publications 2017 Back to Basics: Excavating the Sex Discrimination Roots of Campus Sexual Assault Deborah Brake University of Pittsburgh School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.pitt.edu/fac_articles Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Education Law Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Higher Education Administration Commons, Law and Gender Commons, and the Sexuality and the Law Commons Recommended Citation Deborah Brake, Back to Basics: Excavating the Sex Discrimination Roots of Campus Sexual Assault, 6 Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender & Social Justice 7 (2017). Available at: https://scholarship.law.pitt.edu/fac_articles/11 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Publications at Scholarship@PITT LAW. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@PITT LAW. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. BACK TO BASICS: EXCAVATING THE SEX DISCRIMINATION ROOTS OF CAMPUS SEXUAL ASSAULT Deborah L. Brake* Introduction ............................................................................................................. 7 I. Liberal Feminism and Women’s Leadership Meet Dominance Feminism and Sexual Subordination ....................................................................................... 9 II. The Gender-Blind Discourses of Campus Sexual Assault ............................
    [Show full text]
  • MIAMI UNIVERSITY the Graduate School
    MIAMI UNIVERSITY The Graduate School Certificate for Approving the Dissertation We hereby approve the Dissertation of Bridget Christine Gelms Candidate for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy ______________________________________ Dr. Jason Palmeri, Director ______________________________________ Dr. Tim Lockridge, Reader ______________________________________ Dr. Michele Simmons, Reader ______________________________________ Dr. Lisa Weems, Graduate School Representative ABSTRACT VOLATILE VISIBILITY: THE EFFECTS OF ONLINE HARASSMENT ON FEMINIST CIRCULATION AND PUBLIC DISCOURSE by Bridget C. Gelms As our digital environments—in their inhabitants, communities, and cultures—have evolved, harassment, unfortunately, has become the status quo on the internet (Duggan, 2014 & 2017; Jane, 2014b). Harassment is an issue that disproportionately affects women, particularly women of color (Citron, 2014; Mantilla, 2015), LGBTQIA+ women (Herring et al., 2002; Warzel, 2016), and women who engage in social justice, civil rights, and feminist discourses (Cole, 2015; Davies, 2015; Jane, 2014a). Whitney Phillips (2015) notes that it’s politically significant to pay attention to issues of online harassment because this kind of invective calls “attention to dominant cultural mores” (p. 7). Keeping our finger on the pulse of such attitudes is imperative to understand who is excluded from digital publics and how these exclusions perpetuate racism and sexism to “preserve the internet as a space free of politics and thus free of challenge to white masculine heterosexual hegemony” (Higgin, 2013, n.p.). While rhetoric and writing as a field has a long history of examining myriad exclusionary practices that occur in public discourses, we still have much work to do in understanding how online harassment, particularly that which is gendered, manifests in digital publics and to what rhetorical effect.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Acting Like 13 Year Old Boys?'
    ‘Acting like 13 year old boys?’ Exploring the discourse of online harassment and the diversity of harassers Lucy Fisher-Hackworth Submitted to the Department of Gender Studies, University of Utrecht In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Erasmus Mundus Master's Degree in Women's and Gender Studies Main supervisor: Dr.Domitilla Olivieri (University of Utrecht) Second reader: Dr. Jasmina Lukic (Central European University) Utrecht, the Netherlands 2016 Approved: _________________________________________ 1 ABSTRACT In this thesis, I have undertaken research into the users behind online harassment. The impetus behind this was to investigate taken for granted assumptions about who harassers are, what they do online, and how they do it. To begin, I highlight the discourse of online harassment of women in scholarship and online-news media, discussing the assumptions made about who is harassing and why. I discuss the lack of consideration of multi-layered harassment and argue for more research that takes into consideration the intersectionality of harassing content, and the experiences of all women online. I provide an overview of online methodologies and of feminism on the internet. I then undertake an investigation into harassers behind online harassment of women, and find trends in user profiles, user behaviour, and in online communication patterns more broadly. I discuss how researching this topic affected me personally, reflecting on the impact of viewing high amounts abusive content. My findings challenged many of the assumptions initially identified, so, with that in mind, I provide a discussion of why such assumptions are problematic. I argue that such assumptions contribute to a discourse that homogenizes harassment and harassers, and overlooks broader internet-specific behaviours.
    [Show full text]
  • The Trouble with White Feminism: Whiteness, Digital Feminism and the Intersectional Internet
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research CUNY Graduate Center 2016 The Trouble with White Feminism: Whiteness, Digital Feminism and the Intersectional Internet Jessie Daniels Hunter College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_pubs/194 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] “The Trouble with White Feminism: Whiteness, Digital Feminism and the Intersectional Internet” by Jessie Daniels, PhD Professor, Sociology Hunter College and The Graduate Center, CUNY 2180 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10035 email: [email protected] or [email protected] Submitted for consideration to the volume The Intersectional Internet, Section Two: Cultural Values in the Machine (2016) PRE-PRINT VERSION, 16 FEBRUARY 2015 ABSTRACT (210): In August, 2013 Mikki Kendall, writer and pop culture analyst, started the hashtag #SolidarityisforWhiteWomen as a form of cyberfeminist activism directed at the predominantly white feminist activists and bloggers at sites like Feministing, Jezebel and Pandagon who failed to acknowledge the racist, sexist behavior of one their frequent contributors. Kendall’s hashtag activism quickly began trending and reignited a discussion about the trouble with white feminism. A number of journalists have excoriated Kendall specifically, and women of color more generally, for contributing to a “toxic” form of feminism. Yet what remains unquestioned in these journalistic accounts and in the scholarship to date, is the dominance of white women as architects and defenders of a framework of white feminism – not just in the second wave but today, in the digital era.
    [Show full text]
  • Law's Expressive Value in Combating Cyber Gender Harassment
    Michigan Law Review Volume 108 Issue 3 2009 Law's Expressive Value in Combating Cyber Gender Harassment Danielle Keats Citron University of Maryland School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Internet Law Commons, and the Law and Gender Commons Recommended Citation Danielle K. Citron, Law's Expressive Value in Combating Cyber Gender Harassment, 108 MICH. L. REV. 373 (2009). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol108/iss3/3 This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by the Michigan Law Review at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LAW'S EXPRESSIVE VALUE IN COMBATING CYBER GENDER HARASSMENT Danielle Keats Citron* The online harassment of women exemplifies twenty-first century behavior that profoundly harms women yet too often remains over- looked and even trivialized. This harassment includes rape threats, doctored photographs portraying women being strangled,postings of women's home addresses alongside suggestions that they are in- terested in anonymous sex, and technological attacks that shut down blogs and websites. It impedes women's full participation in online life, often driving them offline, and undermines their auton- omy, identity, dignity, and well-being. But the public and law enforcement routinely marginalize women's experiences, deeming the harassment harmless teasing that women should expect, and tolerate, given the internet's Wild West norms of behavior The trivializationof phenomena that profoundly affect women's ba- sic freedoms is nothing new.
    [Show full text]
  • Terrorizing Gender: Transgender Visibility and the Surveillance Practices of the U.S
    Terrorizing Gender: Transgender Visibility and the Surveillance Practices of the U.S. Security State A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Mia Louisa Fischer IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dr. Mary Douglas Vavrus, Co-Adviser Dr. Jigna Desai, Co-Adviser June 2016 © Mia Louisa Fischer 2016 Acknowledgements First, I would like to thank my family back home in Germany for their unconditional support of my academic endeavors. Thanks and love especially to my Mom who always encouraged me to be creative and queer – far before I knew what that really meant. If I have any talent for teaching it undoubtedly comes from seeing her as a passionate elementary school teacher growing up. I am very thankful that my 92-year-old grandma still gets to see her youngest grandchild graduate and finally get a “real job.” I know it’s taking a big worry off of her. There are already several medical doctors in the family, now you can add a Doctor of Philosophy to the list. I promise I will come home to visit again soon. Thanks also to my sister, Kim who has been there through the ups and downs, and made sure I stayed on track when things were falling apart. To my dad, thank you for encouraging me to follow my dreams even if I chased them some 3,000 miles across the ocean. To my Minneapolis ersatz family, the Kasellas – thank you for giving me a home away from home over the past five years.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Norms, Shame, and Regulation in an Internet Age
    St. John's University School of Law St. John's Law Scholarship Repository Faculty Publications 2016 Re-Framing the Debate: Social Norms, Shame, and Regulation in an Internet Age Kate Klonick Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.stjohns.edu/faculty_publications Part of the Internet Law Commons RE-SHAMING THE DEBATE: SOCIAL NORMS, SHAME, AND REGULATION IN AN INTERNET AGE * KATE KLONICK Advances in technological communication have dramatically changed the ways in which social norm enforcement is used to constrain behavior. Nowhere is this more powerfully demonstrated than through current events around online shaming and cyber harassment. Low cost, anonymous, instant, and ubiquitous access to the Internet has removed most—if not all—of the natural checks on shaming. The result is norm enforcement that is indeterminate, uncalibrated, and often tips into behavior punishable in its own right—thus generating a debate over whether the state should intervene to curb online shaming and cyber harassment. A few years before this change in technology, a group of legal scholars debated just the opposite, discussing the value of harnessing the power of social norm enforcement through shaming by using state shaming sanctions as a more efficient means of criminal punishment. Though the idea was discarded, many of their concerns were prescient and can inform today’s inverted new inquiry: whether the state should create limits on shaming and cyber bullying. Perhaps more importantly, the debate reintroduces the notion of thinking of shaming within the framework of social norm enforcement, thus clarifying the taxonomy of online shaming, cyber bullying, and cyber harassment.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Norms, Shame, and Regulation in an Internet Age Kate Klonick
    Maryland Law Review Volume 75 | Issue 4 Article 4 Re-Shaming the Debate: Social Norms, Shame, and Regulation in an Internet Age Kate Klonick Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/mlr Part of the Internet Law Commons, and the Law and Society Commons Recommended Citation 75 Md. L. Rev. 1029 (2016) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Academic Journals at DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maryland Law Review by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. RE-SHAMING THE DEBATE: SOCIAL NORMS, SHAME, AND REGULATION IN AN INTERNET AGE * KATE KLONICK Advances in technological communication have dramatically changed the ways in which social norm enforcement is used to constrain behavior. Nowhere is this more powerfully demonstrated than through current events around online shaming and cyber harassment. Low cost, anonymous, instant, and ubiquitous access to the Internet has removed most—if not all—of the natural checks on shaming. The result is norm enforcement that is indeterminate, uncalibrated, and often tips into behavior punishable in its own right—thus generating a debate over whether the state should intervene to curb online shaming and cyber harassment. A few years before this change in technology, a group of legal scholars debated just the opposite, discussing the value of harnessing the power of social norm enforcement through shaming by using state shaming sanctions as a more efficient means of criminal punishment. Though the idea was discarded, many of their concerns were prescient and can inform today’s inverted new inquiry: whether the state should create limits on shaming and cyber bullying.
    [Show full text]
  • Deplatforming Misogyny
    Copyright © 2021 Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) Published by Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) 180 Dundas Street West, Suite 1420 Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5G 1C7 www.leaf.ca LEAF is a national, charitable, non-profit organization, founded in 1985. LEAF works to advance the substantive equality rights of women and girls in Canada through litigation, law reform and public education using the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This publication was created as part of LEAF's Technology-Facilitated Violence (TFV) Project. The TFV Project brings together feminist lawyers and academics to conduct research and produce publications imagining legal responses to TFV against women and gender-diverse people that are informed by equality principles. The project also supports and informs LEAF’s law reform efforts and potential upcoming interventions concerning TFV. Acknowledgements Deep gratitude and appreciation go to the many people whose efforts and support made this publication possible. This report was researched and written by Cynthia Khoo, a technology and human rights lawyer and researcher. Cynthia holds an LL.M. (Concentration in Law and Technology) from the University of Ottawa, where she worked on cases as junior counsel at the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC). Her paper on platform liability for emergent systemic harm to historically marginalized groups received the inaugural Ian R. Kerr Robotnik Memorial Award for the Best Paper by an Emerging Scholar at We Robot 2020. She has managed a sole practice law firm, Tekhnos Law, and obtained her J.D. from the University of Victoria.
    [Show full text]
  • Mapping the Alt-Right and the Manosphere:
    The Discursive Style and Reactionary Politics of the Manosphere by Selena Neumark Hermann B.A., University of British Columbia, 2015 Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the School of Communication Faculty of Communication, Arts and Technology © Selena Neumark Hermann 2019 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Summer 2019 Copyright in this work rests with the author. Please ensure that any reproduction or re-use is done in accordance with the relevant national copyright legislation. Approval Name: Selena Neumark Hermann Degree: Master of Arts Title: The Discursive Style and Reactionary Politics of the Manosphere Examining Committee: Chair: Sun-Ha Hong Assistant Professor Stuart Poyntz Senior Supervisor Associate Professor Frederik Lesage Supervisor Associate Professor Enda Brophy Internal Examiner Associate Professor Date Defended/Approved: June 13, 2019 ii Abstract This study aims to unpack the styles of discourse adopted and implemented by the Manosphere, an online community of self described Men's Rights Activists (MRAs) and “Red Pillers”. Through a Critical Discourse Analysis of Manosphere texts, the research explores how issues of gender and race inform the culture and politics of the community. It identifies common linguistic markers that distinguish the Manosphere from the historical Men's Rights Movement and liken it instead, to the the Alt-Right movement. For example, devices like metaphor, hyperbole and dog whistles operate in the discourse as modes for negotiating meaning making and accelerating the dissemination of extreme right discourse in mainstream political spaces. I argue that this process in part explains why particularly since 2016 and the election of Donald Trump in the United States, political sentiment has become more open to the iterations of misogyny and racism emblematic of the Manosphere.
    [Show full text]
  • Reconciling #Metoo and Criminal Justice
    Reconciling #MeToo and Criminal Justice Margo Kaplan* I. Introduction ................................................................................................ 361 II. #MeToo’s Achievements ............................................................................ 366 A. Exposing the Criminal Justice System’s Failures .............................. 366 B. Contextualizing Sexual Violence ..................................................... 371 III. #MeToo’s Failures ...................................................................................... 377 A. The Continuing Erasure of Women of Color .................................... 377 B. The Monster Narrative ................................................................... 382 IV. Lessons for the Criminal Justice System .................................................... 389 A. Reforming Rape Law and the Carceral State .................................... 389 B. Alternative Reporting Mechanisms.................................................. 392 C. Restorative Justice ......................................................................... 393 V. Conclusion .................................................................................................. 398 I. INTRODUCTION Depending on who you ask, the #MeToo movement is either overdue or overreaching, but it seems everyone has heard of it. The response to actress Alyssa Milano’s tweet inviting women who experienced sexual harassment or assault to tweet “#MeToo” was overwhelming.1 “MeToo” was retweeted nearly half
    [Show full text]
  • ISIS Type of Organization
    ISIS Name: ISIS Type of Organization: Insurgent territory-controlling religious terrorist violent Ideologies and Affiliations: Islamist jihadist pan-Islamist Salafist takfiri Place of Origin: Iraq Year of Origin: Al-Qaeda in Iraq: 2004; ISIS: 2013 Founder(s): Al-Qaeda in Iraq: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; ISIS: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Places of Operation: ISIS has declared wilayas (provinces) in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Turkey, Central Africa, Mali, Niger, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, and the North Caucasus. Beyond this, the terror group has waged attacks in Lebanon, France, Belgium, Bangladesh, Morocco, Indonesia, Malaysia, Tunisia, and Kuwait. Overview Also known as: ISIS Al-Qa’ida Group of Jihad in Iraq1 Organization of al-Jihad’s Base in the Land of the Two Rivers40 Al-Qa’ida Group of Jihad in the Land of the Two Rivers2 Organization Base of Jihad/Country of the Two Rivers41 Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI)3 Organization of al-Jihad’s Base of Operations in Iraq42 Al-Qa’ida in Iraq – Zarqawi4 Organization of al-Jihad’s Base of Operations in the Land of the Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia (AQM)5 Two Rivers43 Al-Qa’ida in the Land of the Two Rivers6 Organization of Jihad’s Base in the Country of the Two Rivers Al-Qa’ida of Jihad Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers7 44 Al-Qa’ida of the Jihad in the Land of the Two Rivers8 Qaida of the Jihad in the Land of the Two Rivers45 Al-Qaeda Separatists in Iraq and Syria (QSIS)9 Southern Province46 Al-Tawhid10 Tanzeem Qa'idat al
    [Show full text]